'Stressed' builder spared jail for knife threat to Tube passengers

A builder who threatened to "cut up" terrified passengers on a packed Tube train has been spared jail.

Adam Birch, 34, of Southwark, said he drank three pints of beer to numb the pain of a back injury before making his way home on the Central line.

But as he travelled between Shepherd's Bush and Oxford Circus he began cursing at fellow passengers he believed were standing too close to him, Blackfriars crown court heard.

When two passengers stood up to him he threatened to get out his Stanley knife and "cut them up". Birch then pulled out his trowel, which the men wrestled from him.

The court was told he had been worried about his children after clashes with his ex-partner and had to rush to finish his building site job before the loaned equipment was returned.

Judge Daniel Worsley handed him a 26-week prison sentence suspended for 18 months, and imposed a six-month curfew between 10pm and 5am, which he called a "home imprisonment order". The judge said: "I understand there were stresses at work, your back, and ongoing domestic problems. You dealt with it quite wrongly and having too much too quickly to drink.

"Then you behaved quite repulsively on the Underground, where your victims were effectively prisoners. You were threatening people to keep out of your way because you were in pain."